Kungfu Noodle: Using Their Noodle

With just 10 items on the menu, Kungfu Noodle puts a masterful focus on each dish

By Julia Celeste

Photos By Jessica Attie

There are two things diners should not expect on a visit to Kungfu Noodle: ambiance and an extensive menu. The restaurant offers a relatively spartan dining experience where the goal is to order, slurp and depart. The minimalist decor (including a banner in Chinese characters that spells out Kungfu Noodle House) is cheerful and clean, and the service fast and efficient.

Yali Wang, daughter of the chef-owners Yufang Han (her mom) and Huachun (her dad), explains why the menu is limited. “Every item takes a long time to make. And we’re just a small family,” she say. Yes, it’s that simple. And that straightforward fact creates the flavors that make Kungfu so craveable despite the limited options.

Noodles here are slapped and pulled into shape on kitchen counters (sometimes you can hear the action) and develop a characteristic “springy” texture with the help of an alkaline added to the dough. Ranging from wide to thin, the handmade noodles remain the centerpiece of the restaurant’s main dishes, turning steaming bowls of broth into a satisfying meal.

Both the stretched noodles with beef and the handmade noodles with pork are broth-based dishes filled with ample amounts of baby bok choy, meat and spaghetti-size noodles. The broths are mild but flavorful and won’t challenge any wimpy palates. Those who like a bit more bite appreciate the hot oil and Sriracha politely provided at the table.

The handmade noodles with lamb, filled with hand-cut broad noodles and hearty ground lamb, deliver such a spicy punch you won’t need to add any extra fuel to the fire. Keep a few extra napkins nearby as the sinus-clearing begins right after your first swallow. Don’t worry. You’ll be used to it after a few more slurps and looking forward to more after your final mop of the bowl.

Yali says the lamb and beef broths are a delicate hands-on endeavor. “My mother gets here very early in the morning to make the broths. Then she starts on the dough for the noodles and dumplings,” she explains.

Ah, the dumplings.

“Kungfu” loosely translates to “the skills achieved through hard work.” And while the tiny restaurant’s broths and noodles clearly demonstrate those skills, the dumplings are a shining example of them. As an order of about 25 hand-crimped noodle packets steams its way to the table, start mixing your dipping sauce from the condiments on the table: two tablespoons of soy sauce, a soupçon of vinegar, a drizzle of hot oil. Do your best to let the dumplings cool and the flavors develop. You can’t make a wrong choice from the three options. Pork and mushroom delivers the Zen-balanced flavor of both ingredients, the beef rendition is a steak-lover’s dream, and there’s a somewhat lighter flavor in the pork and chive mix. No matter which you order, you won’t be able to eat just one. In addition to the handmade dough, all of the fillings are ground by hand from larger cuts of meat and fresh herbs and spices.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in-the-know patrons rush in for handmade buns. At $1 each, they’re a steal. A manly fist-sized, bright-white, soft, doughy bun is served either plain (called Chinese buns) or filled with a chunky mix of cabbage, carrot, ground pork and red pepper flakes. According to Yali, the buns are another true labor of love. “We used to be open seven days a week, and my parents would work very late into the night to make the buns on Monday nights,” she says. “It’s a very special dough and takes a long time to rise. We could only make so many, and we were running out on Tuesdays, even though we said we had them Wednesdays too. People were very disappointed. So we decided to close on Mondays to make more buns, and now we don’t usually run out.”

Yali says they have been considering adding several new dishes to create a larger menu, but they’re not quite ready to do so yet. Instead, look for unique items on a handwritten specials board. One such special, the Five-Spiced Egg, has the subtle flavor of black tea, cloves, star anise, cinnamon and fennel that had been infused into the hard-boiled egg. The board said it would go best with the lamb bowl. We ate it like an appetizer instead.

Bring your own beer or wine if you like, or enjoy hot tea and canned soda. You’re sure to return to try everything the menu offers at least once. With just 10 items to sample, each priced at $6.99 or $1, frequent visitors can expect to quickly become Kungfu masters with mad noodle skills.

Don't Miss Dishes

1. Neither the clear sweet potato noodles nor the opaque tofu noodles are made in house, but the sweet potato noodles with beef still manages to hook you in with a satisfying broth and thin slices of tender meat.

2. Be careful not to chomp into a dried chile arbol as you dig into the fried noodles with vegetables. The hot-oil-laced stir-fried veggies are a crunchy foil to the thin handmade noodles. It’s the only non-soup noodle dish. Just ask to add pork or beef.

3. Share an order of dumplings, then get another to take home. They’re easy to reheat: Place in a glass bowl, add a teaspoon of water, cover and heat.